Memories of Tsushima
by lastfight5
Summary: Mikasa recalled her experience in the early days of the Abyssal invasion, as the flagship of the newly formed "Combined Fleet". Despite being recently commissioned, she was expected to lead and clear the Abyssal west of Japan by her favourite admiral, Togo. Based on the Russo-Japanese War. DISCONTINUED - BEING OVERHAULED IN THE NEW STORY
1. Chapter 1 - Revisiting the Past

**Chapter 1 - Revisiting the Past**

 _It was many years after my greatest victory. We've been known to history and changed the course of the world. Against all odds, we defeated the huge fleet that no one thought it was possible. Yet, we all wasted. My sisters in that battle were long gone. I'm the only one still alive. Alive today._

I walked around the docks of the Naval District. There seem to be not much people around, yet in my mind, I could hear the cheerful screams of my past. I'm now a middle age woman, yet I'm hiding the past, but today, I'm revisiting. The world has changed so much. I've heard the great victories at MI base. The Abyssal are sure falling back. Yet I remembered my own time that's like that.

I walked into the graveyard, located at the back of the district. For some reason, I felt my old friends were greeting me of my return. But now, they're all dead. Or at least, in my words, decommissioned and scrapped up. I walked around the graves, placing flowers in front of some and paid respect. However, what caught my attention was the huge grave overlooking the whole graveyard. I walked up to it and read the inscription.

 _Admiral Togo_

 _'Nelson of the East'_

 _Brought Great Victory at Tsushima_

"Admiral," I said under breath. I placed a wreath of flowers before saluting.

"Hey, are you new here?" someone asked behind me. Instantly, I turn around to come face to face with that person. This person had a long brown hair flowing down her white and red clothes. She had a cheerful personality. Next to her was similar to her, but her brown hair was done in a side pony tail and wore white and blue clothes. Unlike the first one, she's the opposite to her.

"No no. I'm sorry," I quickly apologised and bowed, but the red woman stopped me.

"It's ok, it's fine. You did nothing wrong."

The blue woman's eyes looked closer to me.

 _Why is she looking at me like that._

"Have I seen you from somewhere?" she asked.

"I beg your pardon?" I answered.

"Sorry if that was rude, but I seem to recognise you from somewhere."

"Don't worry about her. By the way I'm Akagi. Over here is Kaga. What about your name?" the red woman stepped in and introduced herself and the blue woman, while at the same time asking me.

I was surprised and shocked; I remembered their names. They had grown so much, but the last time I remembered them, they were supposed to be built as battlecruiser and battleship. Oh that's right, the treaty forced the two to become aircraft carriers. As for Kaga, it was complicated. She was intended to be scrapped, but the great earthquake had damaged Amagi beyond repair. It was decided that Kaga would take her role as a replacement. When they're finished their conversion, they were a perfect match.

Back to present, I struggled to answer this question. Finally I had the courage to say it, "I'm... I'm Mikasa."

Both their eyes were widened by my name. Kaga spoke first, "I knew I recognised you from somewhere. Where have you been... aunty?"

I was taken a step back by the last word. _She even called me when she was young_.

Akagi decided to change the subject, "Mikasa, it's an honour to meet you again. Would you like to join us at the restaurant?"

Still shaking, I reluctantly accepted the offer.

* * *

I was surprised by the mountain of curry rice that Akagi and lesser extent to Kaga. For me, I thought back in my time, I had the most curry, but here, it was half the size of Akagi's. Many other girls in the restaurant looked at me, some whispered amongst each other.

I decided to ignore them and started a conversation, "I heard you brought victory at MI base. The whole street were buzzing with readers and watchers. How did it go?"

"It was hard to be honest. I thought I would be sunk by that bomber, but thankfully Fubuki came in right on time to save us," Akagi responded.

"As well as other ships, including Shokaku, Zuikaku and that armoured carrier Taihou, we able to destroy MI base," Kaga continued. I thought of my own victories in the west against the Abyssal.

"Akagi-sempai," a girl voice spoke out. I looked left and saw a young girl dressed in white and blue clothes, with her black hair done up. She was bowing down

"Oh Fubuki, I want you to meet Mikasa," Akagi introduced me to this girl.

Fubuki looked up at me, "Mikasa? I know you through books! I heard you brought victory at Tsushima years ago! You must be the pre-dreadnought battleship!"

"Fubuki, it's quite rude of you to interrupt our conversation. Maybe it's best if you leave us alone," Kaga scolded her.

Fubuki gave a one last bow in apology, "I'm sorry."

"No no, it's ok. You can stay," I stopped her.

"Aunty?" Kaga asked me in confusion.

I giggled a bit, "Maybe it's time for me to give you a story telling I never done when you two were child."

"You mean about Tsushima?" Fubuki asked brightly.

"Yes, but we going to start from the beginning, the time before any of you were born," I said as I started my experience as a kanmusu myself.

* * *

 _This is going to be a mini-series revolving around Mikasa in the entire Russo-Japanese War, although in Kancolle world, the early era of the Abyssal invasion. However, expect some little historical inaccuracies in some parts._

 _For those who wondered why Kaga called Mikasa "aunty", more on that later._

 _Here's a little description of Mikasa: She's the sixth pre-dreadnought Japanese battleships before the Russo-Japanese War. Unlike the other five, because of difficulties the Japanese had in the early days, she was built in England and raised in Japan. Think of her as Kongou, except the opposite. She was only two years old since commissioned when the Russo-Japanese War broke out. She became the flagship of the Combined Fleet (a huge honour), and despite being the youngest of the... well nearly all the ships, she lead victories over the Russians against the world expectation. However after the war, her magazine exploded and she sank, but she was recovered and put back to service._

 _In 1923, the treaty ordered her to be decommissioned and to be destroyed. However, the Japanese authorities wanted her to be spared, which the other signatory countries agreed. On 12 November 1926, she was opened as Museum Ship at Yokosuka, in the presence of Crown Prince Hirohito and the Admiral that served her through the war, Togo._

 _After World War 2, things started to go against her. Her weapons were removed and she was left to be deteriorated. However, campaigns led by Japan Times and Admiral Chester Nimitz allowed her to be restored in 1961. She was repainted, given replica guns and was returned to her former glory. She was reopened to public._

 _Mikasa is still alive to this day._


	2. Chapter 2 - The First Battle

**Chapter 2 – The First Battle of Port Arthur**

I saw myself as a young woman. I'm known as Mikasa, the only pre-dreadnought battleship of my class. Yet I was a shy and timid battleship, out of the six. Because Japan was still incapable to build us battleships, they asked Britain to build us there instead. Yet despite our origin, the older ship girls always treated me as if we part of their family. The other five battleships were the two oldest sisters _Fuji_ and _Yashima_ , the middle sisters _Shikishima_ and _Hatsuse_ and the youngest battleship who was barely older than me and my good friend, _Asahi_.

I was in target range, aiming my 12 inch guns at the four targets. The past times, I constantly missed my targets. However, through tough corrections from my errors and other five's lessons, I leaned closer to perfection. This time, I fired all my guns, hoping that all hit the four targets. My hopes had been granted; all four targets were hit by my shell.

"Nice going Mikasa," Fuji congratulated me, "A few more practices and you'll be better than us."

"Thank you. I'll try my best," I told her.

Suddenly, they heard a clear of throat behind them. We turned around saw a man in naval uniform. It's an officer. To be exact Togo himself. All six of us quickly saluted.

"Rear-Admiral Togo!" Yashima called out his name formally.

"Its Admiral now," Togo corrected her. All six of us were astonished by his promotion.

"Congratulations Admiral Togo! So now you can command the whole Combined Fleet!" Hatsuse congratulated him.

"There's always reasons. Our leader asked my commander why I'm chosen. He told him 'I'm lucky'," he chuckled, but then went serious, "You see we have a huge task ahead of us: we taking the fight to the west again."

"But wasn't it cleared already?" Shikishima asked.

"No, they've returned. And they've outnumbered us a lot, just like the forces over at China, but more. They got Port Arthur and planned to stay there. We not letting it happen. The Naval Command demand us to eradicate the Abyssal out of Korea," Togo gave out a detailed answer.

"Well this is going to be easy. You saw how our cruisers and destroyers crushed the huge Abyssal battleships over China," Asahi spoke with confidence, but over.

"Not necessarily. The Abyssal have better battleships, better prepared than the ones in China and well disciplined. It's not going to be an easy fight, but we may still have a chance," he answered before facing me, "But first thing first, Mikasa, you will be the flagship of the fleet and lead the destruction of the entire Abyssal fleet. I expect great successes from you."

I became shocked about becoming a flagship of an entire fleet I have never done, yet I expected this. Out of all six of us, I was the most favourite of Togo. He always looked up me and treated me as if his child. On one occasion, on one of my birthday, he brought a huge present for me. The other five teased me and all how lucky I am. Now he handed me an important role to lead a huge fleet, a huge responsibility for me. For me, I had just commissioned and had never even commanded a division, but it's an order and I had to comply.

* * *

The six of us, joined by numerous cruisers and destroyers, left port towards Port Arthur. I was in the lead. Most had doubts that I could pull this off as I was the newest battleship, but soon convinced themselves I could. Togo's plan was simple: lead a surprise attack under the cover of darkness and draw them out to destroy them. As we approached Port Arthur, we saw a few destroyers in front of us. I prepared my guns, as do as everyone else. However, for some strange reason, the Abyssal destroyers didn't fire back and instead turned around. Still we pressed on.

We arrived at the great wall of Port Arthur. Port Arthur was a huge fortress, equipped with so much shore batteries, it would be impossible to break through these defences with brute strength. However, because that not a single Abyssal suspected us right behind the wall, none of the Abyssal were awake.

"Ok, you ten destroyers sneak into the port and torpedo as many ships as possible. Battleships are your top priority, but you can drop torpedoes on the destroyers and cruisers as well. Got that?" I whispered to the destroyers. They nodded and sailed into the wall.

Because the Abyssal were still asleep, the element of surprise was with our forces. However, my plans soon gone awry. Some destroyers arrived too late to benefit the surprise and many who did dropped their torpedoes either missed, failed to explode or were caught by torpedo net. Only three Abyssal ships were hit and knocked out. With all the Abyssal now awake, it became impossible for further accurate torpedo attacks to be made. However, despite the result was poor, our luck was still intact. Out of the ships that were knocked out, two were battleships and these were the best ones the Abyssal had.

* * *

Our fleet waited around at the rocks, close to Port Arthur, but out of line of sight. I sent four cruisers, _Yakumo_ , _Tokiwa_ , _Kasagi_ and _Yoshino_ on reconnaissance mission to check on the Abyssal. Because of morning mist, it could hide the cruisers from sight, but so do the Abyssal as

"Mikasa, do you think you can handle this job?" Asahi started asking me, which I turned to her, "I mean, it's a huge job. You're leading an entire fleet to clear the entire west of Japan."

"Togo expects me to lead this fleet to victory. Whatever he assigns us, we must do them," I told her, but later muttered to myself, "If I could."

Mikasa looked back at the direction of the port and saw four figures coming out of the mist.

"They're back guys," I told everyone, which they stood up after sitting on the rocks for so long.

I sailed up to Yakumo and asked her, "So what did you four see through the mist?"

Yakumo gave her report, "I saw 12 battleships and cruisers in port, 4 of which looked like they're listing or ran aground. The smaller Abyssal looked like they're in disarray. I believe our night attack is successful. We should attack immediately and catch them while they're off-guard."

"Wait are you sure? I want to lure them out of their protection of their shore batteries and attack them while they're in open water," I gave the cruiser my own idea.

It was then Fuji supported Yakumo stance, "Mikasa, I believe Yakumo knew more about the Abyssal than we do. Perhaps we should go along with what she said. We can use our 12 inch guns to suppress the batteries while we use our other guns to mow down the Abyssal, am I right?"

I hesitated a bit before agreeing and gave out orders, "First Division, we going to attack the port! Second Division, support us while we are attacking! Third Division will stay here as reserve! You all got that?"

"Right!"

* * *

The morning mist started to fade as midday was approaching. The port started to get clearer. If Yakumo is right, we sure able to annihilate the entire Abyssal fleet in one go. Suddenly, an Abyssal cruiser came out of the mist at extremely close range to me. I was surprised and caught off-guard for a second, but a second too long. The Abyssal cruiser opened fire straight at me, knocked my footing off.

"Mikasa!" Asahi shouted as she came up to me and helped me up, "Are you ok?"

"I'm alright," I told her as I got back to my foot. However, the Abyssal cruiser got away.

"Oh no, I think I got it all wrong," Yoshino said.

"What do you mean? Wasn't the Abyssal fleet in disarray?" I asked her.

She gave a chilling answer, "They're weren't in disarray. I think they're ready for us."

By saying that, it made me look back at the port. Out of the mist was a massed Abyssal fleet, preparing to engage us.

"She's right, they're prepared for us," Yashima said.

"It's infeasible to attack them this time! We had to pull back!" Shikishima suggested.

However, I decided to ready my guns, "We can't turn back now! We going in for an attack! You all ready?!"

The other five battleships, as well as the cruisers behind me, weren't sure, but eventually readied their guns. "We by your side Mikasa. We'll follow your orders to the end," Asahi told me.

I nodded and turned towards the Abyssal fleet, "Attack!"

I lead the way at full steam, followed by my other fellow ships. The Abyssal battleships opened fire at us, which missed most the times. I stopped a bit and opened fire my 12 inch guns, not at the Abyssal ships, but straight at the shore batteries. However, my shots only hit the walls. One shell from the Abyssal battleship fired straight at me and scraped my right cheeks.

I began leading my fellow battleships close to the Abyssal broadside, firing our 8 inch guns and 6 inch guns. However, those guns did little damage to the Abyssal battleships. Worse, their 12 inch shots did no better than mine, either missing completely or hitting the walls. Meanwhile, the shore batteries gave us a lot of beating. Fuji, Shikishima and Hatsuse took damage from both shore batteries and Abyssal battleships, but were still able to keep on fighting.

The battle raged on for 20 minutes, going back and forth. I realised this battle will go nowhere and we'll be sooner or later be destroyed by the Abyssal shore batteries. I decided to escape.

"All ships, we reversing course! We can't fight any longer than this!" I ordered.

"But that mean we going to be exposed to the full brunt of the shore batteries! It's a huge risk!" Yashima tried to warn me.

"It's better than become dead iron in this trap! We have to go!" I insisted. The other ships agreed, already battered by the fight. All of us started turning around to get out of here. Despite the continuous pounding of the shore batteries, we managed to complete the turn and went full speed ahead, rapidly escaping until we got out of range.

* * *

 _Battle of Port Arthur was the first battle between the Japanese and the Russians. The Japanese began with a surprise attack with destroyers. However, the attack went awry, but their luck was still intact. Out of all the ships were hit, two best battleships_ Retvizan _and_ Tsesarevich _, as well as the protected cruiser_ Pallada _._

 _Following the engagement, Vice Admiral Shigeto Dewa urged Admiral Togo to attack, as he thought the Russians were effectively paralysed, but the Russians had recovered and were ready. Although Togo wanted to lure them out, he decided to go along with Dewa. However, the risk was justified. The Russians started pounding the Japanese. The Japanese tried engaging the shore batteries with their 12 inch guns while their smaller guns engage the Russians, but it proved to be ineffective._

 _Togo decided to reverse course, but that risked to get the full brunt of the shore batteries. Nevertheless, under heavy fire, they completed the turn and escaped._


	3. Chapter 3 - Victory comes at hefty cost

**Chapter 3 - Victory comes at a hefty cost**

 _I made a little change at Chapter 1. Apparently, Houshou is the mother of all carriers, and it will be weird to have two carriers, especially with one that is 20 years older than the first carrier. Also, I found Chapter 2 to be full of mistakes and was fixed. Just a little heads up_

* * *

Akagi and Kaga had to leave for their exercise with their aircraft, as well as Fubuki who left for class, leaving me alone here

"So you decided to visit us, sensei?" a calm voice came from my right. I looked and saw a woman in a scarlet kimono with a dark hakama, finished with matching tatsuki.

"Oh it's you Houshou. You look good since when I was decommissioned," I answered back.

"Thank you. But it kind of sad that you became obsolete years before I was born and finally decommissioned just as I was ready for commissioning."

"I know. But when you were born, I knew that the age of battleships had ended. You pretty much the one that spelled the end of us."

Houshou giggled, "That was HMS Dreadnought who brought you the end." She decided to change topic, "May I ask why you decided to visit us?"

All of a sudden, my happiness had turned grim, "Well, the real reason... not only to come and congratulate your victory, but also to honour my friend who sank by a submarine. My closest one."

Houshou suspected who I meant, "That's Asahi, your best friend, you mean."

I nodded, "We promised each other to meet at Kure shipyard. But on the way from Singapore, she was torpedoed. I never saw her again."

"It's too bad she would never learn our victory at MI base. But you still have Fuji and Shikishima," Houshou reminded me but I shook my head.

"It's not the same without Asahi. At least she's with the other two on the moon," I replied grimly.

"Well I have to go now. But I'll let you come to my home for the night. I'm sure that you'll be staying for the celebration," she said as she stood up and left me alone. I recalled another memory when the war heated up.

 _The time when we lost Yashima and Hatsuse._

* * *

 _Time roll back to the early era of the Abyssal invasion_

It seemed that the Abyssal were unmoved by the losses and the blockade. They got more aggressive a month after we first hit them. We kept on bouncing on each other, without any decisive battles. The Abyssal always use their shore batteries to support them ad never leave the protection, making it hard for us to hit them back, without risking being bombarded by them. Because of this, the Abyssal had became more and more confident, often even calling themselves veterans and as a result, we couldn't attack them with an element of surprise. One day, Fuji and Yashima came back to Naval District, heavily damaged by an ambush. Fuji was so heavily damaged that she was taken to repair immediately.

We well into mid-April and the campaign had gone nowhere. I was sitting on the docks of a port in Korea when Togo walked up behind

"Never seen a war before do you Mikasa."

I looked down and shook my head, "Never. I read about the China campaign, but never seen this kind of war before."

"That's in the past. Those Abyssal at China were powerful, but surely quite incompetent it seemed. This one, however, is like it came from Europe. They're tough and well disciplined. Certainly difficult. You know how many people say about us. _No Non-European country ever defeated an European country_. But we'll see about that."

He mentioned the word 'Europe', which reminded me, "Togo, I saw you reading something about Trafalgar that other day. What's that about?"

"The decisive battle between Britain and French in 1805. Nelson was my hero since when I went to England for training. I always read books about him. It was shameful for him to die before he saw his greatest victory."

"I remember him. HMS Trafalgar came up to me while I was fitting out and explained how her namesake had become a legend."

Suddenly, a man ran up to Togo and gave him a file. Togo opened it and looked what it was inside it before facing me, "Mikasa, it seemed that the Abyssal had encountered our destroyers. I can tell the Abyssal will come with battleships. I want you to lead the fleet to the destroyers rescue. By that time, the Abyssal should be out of shore batteries range and will be forced to turn back."

I got confused by this and asked him, "Why would you want to chase them out of their harbour if we can't have the opportunity to fire our guns?"

"Do you remember the blockade? It's not working. Destroyers were constantly hit by the aggressive battleships and forced to return for repairs. I used some blockships to try block the harbour but they don't work. I've decided to mine the area. They'll try chase us until they're too far from shore batteries to support them and had to turn back. That's when they'll hit those mines. Got that?"

I nodded in assurance. However, before I turned around, he gave me some last words, "One more, your main target is the lead battleship of the Abyssal Petro-class. I believe that's the one that's directing all this aggressive actions. Dismiss."

I saluted before leaving.

* * *

Five of us battleships, with Fuji just repaired after her long repair at Naval District, along with some cruisers, were sailing towards the position we would meet with the destroyers. Lucky for me, Togo gave me a photo of who to target. It was some lady with similar weapons to us, but it has yellow aura as opposed to red ones. This indicated it was the flagship.

I looked through my naval telescope and saw a group of our destroyers coming with Abyssal behind them. Among the pursuers was the yellow-aura battleship.

"Mikasa are you ready?" Hatsuse asked me. I looked at her and nodded. I readied my guns at maximum angle, ready to fire.

 _Come on. Come on._

However, just as the Abyssal were in our range, they stopped and turned back. I almost cursed myself at the lost opportunity.

"Mikasa are you alright?" Asahi asked me with a worried look.

I quickly returned to normal and gave her a smile. The destroyers, which were the _Ikazuchi_ * class, came up to me. It seemed that none were hurt, except for a few scratches.

"Are you all alright?" Fuji asked. The lead sister, _Ikazuchi_ , responded.

"Just a few scratches but nothing serious."

"Unfortunately, those Abyssal were smart and turned back. I'm sorry Mikasa," _Inazuma_ apologised.

I shook my hand, "No, it's none of your fault. There's no need to blame yourself. Anyway, we should head back immediately."

Everyone agreed and we all turned for home. However, just as we began to move, an explosion was heard behind us.

"What was that?!" one of the cruisers, _Asama_ , shouted. I quickly grabbed my telescope and looked through it. The smoke had obscured what's in it, but I saw all the Abyssal ships there anyway, except for one. And that one was the yellow-aura battleship. The flagship of the Abyssal fleet. I almost leapt in happiness.

"We got her! The flagship is down under the waves!"

With this news, everyone celebrated, congratulating the destroyers for luring them into the mines. Fuji, however, wasn't as happy as the others were.

"Too bad she didn't sink by our guns."

I sailed up to her and patted her shoulder, "Don't worry. With their leader down, there won't be more attacks against us, especially on you."

"Perhaps you're right. This is a great victory."

"Not a decisive one, but we now have the upper hand."

 _An upper hand indeed, but not for long_

* * *

With the Abyssal's loss of the flagship, the Abyssal were reluctant to come out ever again. Togo took this as an advantage and pressed on. Day and night, we attacked the harbour without delay. But these were not without cost. Although the six of us remained the same, though tired a bit, the number of operational cruisers and destroyers started dripping like drips from taps. But the six of us won't be the six of us.

A month after the sinking of the Abyssal Flagship Petro-class battleship, Togo decided to send half of us to relieve our blockading force. But I won't be participating that action. This task falls to Hatsuse, Shikishima, Yashima, accompanied by protected cruiser _Kasagi_ and dispatch boat _Tatsuta_ , leaving Fuji, Asahi and me behind. I didn't felt disappointed, as I, or we, had been left behind numerous times. However, Hatsuse came up to me as if she thought I was.

"Mikasa, don't be disappointed. Today may not be the day, but when the decisive battle comes, you'll be leading every one of us. One day, you will be the proud battleship the world will ever see. I want to see that day."

"Thank you Hatsuse. But will you, you're sister and Yashima come back safely?" I asked her, worried.

Fuji suddenly spoke up, "Mikasa, don't worry. It's only a small task. They most likely will."

From behind, Shikishima, who was with the other three prepared to launch, shouted, "Sister, we ready to launch."

"Good luck," Asahi gave her luck to them.

"We will!" Hatsuse shouted as she ran back and was launched with her force.

* * *

Two days has past since Hatsuse, Shikishima and Yashima had left port. Although we felt that they most likely to come back, I still sat on the docks, waiting for them to come back.

"Still waiting for them to come back?" a voice asked behind me. I turned around and saw not just Admiral Togo, but also Asahi and Fuji.

"Yeah, I still am. I really had a bad feeling something bad might happen to them," I answered, looked back.

"Mikasa, there's nothing to worry about. They'll come back," Asahi tried to dissuade me.

Togo, however, spoke something that surprised me, even for an admiral, "To be honest, I share that same feeling as you, Mikasa. I had doubts that they would succeed, even by the slimmest chance."

"Admiral, we battleships, we can survive anything," Asahi told him.

"That does not mean you all are invincible."

Suddenly, Fuji spotted them over the horizon, "There they are! They're back."

However, Togo, by looking at them over the horizon, felt something's not right, and that was justified. When Asahi, Fuji and I got the full picture, we were horrified that, not one, but two were missing. Hatsuse and Yashima wasn't with the returning forces, while the ones who did were in grief, with Shikishima affected the most.

"No, this can't be real!" Asahi shouted in disbelief.

The returning force finally got to the docks, but by then, us four got the whole picture. The second Shikishima got up to shore, she collapsed to her side and went into her fetal position, crying.

" _I'm sorry... sister... Yashima... I'm sorry... I couldn't... save... you two..._ "

"Shikishima, what's wrong! Where did Hatsuse and Yashima go?!" Fuji tried to ask her, but it was futile.

"It's no use talking to her like that. Something really bad happened," Togo stopped Fuji before turning to the cruiser, "Kasagi, what happened to the two battleships?"

Kasagi, despite also in grief and clenching her hand, answered, "Our forces encountered a minefield. Hatsuse spotted an Abyssal ship and went after it, despite my warnings. She hit one of the mines laid by the Abyssal. Yashima..."

The word 'Yashima' stopped her. Tatsuta had to take over, "Yashima tried to help Hatsuse, but she also hit the mine. Hatsuse hit the second mine and she was gone. We forced to go to the rocks for safety, but we found out that Yashima could not be saved."

Fuji was shocked by what happened to her sister, but kept her straight face, "D-Did you took her to a b-better place?"

Kasagi finally able to speak up, "Y-Yes. I carried her to a safe place where she would not be disturbed any more."

Fuji, heard all this, collapsed to her knees, "Sister... why..."

I looked at Asahi, but she shook her head, without any words. I looked at Togo, who was slowly walking back to his office.

* * *

 _After the Battle of Port Arthur, the Russian Pacific Fleet received a new commander, Admiral Stepan Marakov. He was perfect for the fleet. The second he took command, he ordered constant attacks against the Japanese, causing a lot of damages on the Japanese navy. However, his success was cut short._

 _On 13 April 1904, he lead his force on his flagship Petropavlovsk to help his destroyer squadron he sent earlier. However, because that he saw the main body of the Japanese fleet on the horizon and he was outside of the shore batteries range, he decided to turn back, only for his ship and one other battleship, Pobeda, to stuck some mines recently laid. Although Pobeda was able to return, Petropavlovsk sank within two minutes, taking Marakov down under the waves._

 _Following the sinking of Petropavlovsk, Togo pursued aggressive actions against the Russians. However, the Russians copied the Japanese mining tactics. On 15 May, Hatsuse, Yashima, Shikishima, together with protected cruiser Kasagi and dispatch boat Tatsuta, were sent to relieve the blockading force. However, Hatsuse saw a Russian minelayer and tried to chase her, ended up in hitting a mine and sank. Yashima tried to help Hatsuse, but she too was struck with mine. The force was forced to retreat, but they found out Yashima could not be saved. After dismounting all the crews, Yashima was towed by Kasagi until she capsized, which Kasagi cast off the tow cable from her._

 _* - Note that ships here aren't the same as the ones in the anime/game. These are ships from the late 19th century._


End file.
